The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) today announced that it has reduced the number of open work orders from a peak of over 420,000 to less than 350,000 as of March 1, 2013. The reduction is a result of NYCHA’s Action Plan to improve its efficiency in responding to maintenance and repair work orders. This decrease of approximately 73,000 work orders positions NYCHA to achieve its goal of reducing the backlog by the end of 2013.

“We continue to make solid progress in reducing the backlog in repair work, which will only serve to enhance the quality of life of our residents,” said John B. Rhea, NYCHA’s Chairman. “NYCHA will continue to make systematic improvements to prevent the development of future backlogs.”

“The hard work of every employee, along with better utilization of our resources, has put NYCHA on track to meet its target of providing quicker responses to residents’ needs for maintenance and repairs,” said Cecil R. House, NYCHA’s General Manager and Chief Operations Officer. “While we are still in the early stages of our Action Plan, we have already begun to implement changes that have eliminated barriers to increased productivity and allowed our workers to be even more efficient.”

As NYCHA continues to implement the Action Plan throughout the year, residents will begin to see shorter wait times for work in their apartments. NYCHA has significantly improved its ability to close outstanding work requests following implementation of its Action Plan. While some components of the Action Plan remain to be implemented, as of March 1, NYCHA will add 388 workers to support work order closure, including another 200 skilled trade workers added since January 2013. NYCHA also added 176 workers for maintenance and repair through an allocation of $10 million from the City Council.

NYCHA has also improved its performance management systems; improved the availability of material; and improved work order coordination and planning. The Authority’s ultimate goal is to respond to corrective maintenance requests within an average of 7 days, and to complex maintenance requests within an average of 15 days. Emergency repairs will continue to be handled within 24 hours.

NYCHA is executing the Action Plan within its normal Operations budget of $500 million, along with savings created from Plan NYCHAinitiatives that include reducing administrative costs. The Action Plan was devised by NYCHA management with input from employees, residents, the labor unions representing NYCHA workers, and advocacy groups. NYCHA will continue to provide regular progress updates on this initiative on its website, www.nyc.gov/nycha.